Hospital - 2
The doctor, arriving at the hospital, glanced at the girl’s legs and realized it was Rin, not the unnie. The question he’d asked wasn’t about treatment but whether he should call the police.
The atmosphere had shifted closer to an interrogation room than the emergency area because the ankle was clearly abnormal.
“Patient?”
The injury itself was ordinary—a common sprain. But the condition was anything but normal.
With that much swelling, the proper response would have been to grab the ankle and stomp it into the ground several times.
“Are you all right, patient?”
And Rin was alarmingly thin. Not severely malnourished, but the lack of care for basic health was unmistakable.
Naturally, the doctor recalled abuse and called for Rin. The girl’s heart began to race at the question.
I got hurt and caused trouble for someone else.
Her mind went blank at the thought, and her throat itched with the pressure to answer something.
“No… it’s fine.”
Still, Rin forced her voice out.
Her trembling hand roamed to her neck, gripped it tightly, and she shouted with every ounce of strength she had left.
“I—I did it wrong!”
The voice was unsteady. Some parts burst out like a scream, and in that same tone she had surprised herself and crawled back in.
But Rin kept her head bowed and kept apologizing without pause.
“I—I overdid it! Sorry. I did it wrong!”
She grabbed the unnie’s sleeve, clutching the hem between thumb and index finger as if hanging on by a thread.
“Hah…”
The doctor exhaled a sigh of relief and a groan at the same time.
It was fortunate that the protector was not the criminal.
She didn’t know how Rin had ended up like this, but at least she hadn’t been dragged into calling the police or any other hassle.
But that also meant Rin had done it to herself.
If she had been properly cared for, resting at home would have been enough.
Who else was harder to treat than someone like her?
The doctor pressed the ballpoint pen repeatedly, the clicks echoing in her complicated thoughts.
“I’ll give you painkillers first. We’ll cast it, and I don’t know how long this will take, but let’s keep it for four weeks.”
“Yes, yes.”
“And I don’t know what happened, but please take care of your body. The guardian next to you seems to cherish you a lot. If you do that, it’s the guardian who will suffer more than the patient.”
She added the warning in a slightly softened voice.
To the girl still panting apologies, she explained that the misunderstanding had been cleared, glanced around, and drew the curtain.
Then Rin slowly lifted her head.
No one was there except the unnie beside her.
Even if people waited beyond the curtain, only the unnie remained now.
“Ah…”
Relief washed over her, and Rin’s body swayed.
The unnie took her hand and stroked her back slowly.
“Now, let’s get the shot, cast, and go.”
“…Yeah.”
After returning from the observatory, the unnie had noticed the change in Rin’s attitude and smiled.
Grabbing the sleeve first, then apologizing for her sake—it felt like opening her heart.
“Rin.”
And greedily, her head began to rise cautiously.
If she opened her heart just a little more, maybe she could ask the reason?
If she asked pretending not to know, wouldn’t she answer?
The part where she had said Rin was pretty at the observatory, and how she had tried to climb so high.
Wouldn’t she do that now?
“But if it hurts, tell me.”
Yet the whispered words were full of concern.
“Unnie was so surprised.”
“…Yeah.”
“Really surprised.”
“Sorry.”
Looking at Rin’s ankle, it was fine anyway.
If she forgot it because she couldn’t ask now, it would be just that.
A thing that was okay to forget.
More important than that was Rin’s ankle.
She wanted Rin to take better care of her own body.
If it hurt, she should have complained and whined to be carried.
She shouldn’t have been unable to walk under the approaching pain like this, or pant for breath.
“We made a promise.”
The unnie spoke softly but firmly, the way she had scolded Rin before.
Like having to get angry because she liked her.
“Hic.”
Rin bowed her head, tears glistening, the first warm scolding she had heard since she was a boy.
“I won’t.”
And she apologized again.
But it was different from apologizing to the doctor.
A small but steady voice.
She didn’t squeeze her neck or force her head down.
She leaned into the gentle touch of the unnie holding her little finger and stroking her back.
“Rin patient? I’ll give you the shot.”
When the nurse opened the curtain and entered, Rin tensed, gripping the finger tightly.
The injection needle pierced the ankle, and Rin squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her body. After the shot, she leaned softly against the unnie.
“After a while, the doctor will wrap it and put the brace on. The brace can be loosened when sleeping, but don’t loosen the bandage. I’ll give you a week’s worth of medicine.”
“Yes, thank you.”
The unnie pulled the girl little by little into her arms, just as she had at the observatory.
Then Rin slowly leaned her head on the unnie’s shoulder.
“Uhm…”
Rin closed her mouth tightly and yawned, blinking.
Deep sleep poured out so heavily that even if the doctor who had been pressing the pen returned, she wouldn’t have woken.
Every time the unnie stroked her back, the head swayed heavily. Every time the bandage wrapped around the ankle slowly, the eyelids slowly closed.
Then, as clouds parted and sunlight poured in, she fell asleep leaning on the unnie. The unnie hugged her and apologized to the doctor.
“I’m sorry.”
“Ah… it’s fine.”
The doctor was taken aback.
It had been a reasonable suspicion, but seeing Rin lean on the unnie made her feel embarrassingly regretful for having suspected her.
“I’m sorry about earlier.”
“No, I couldn’t scold her either.”
“When taking medicine, please avoid fatty foods or red meat for now. Instead, eating fish often will help with recovery.”
“Yes.”
“And if you’re okay, please sleep a bit. I’ll put a futon.”
The unnie bowed her head in thanks to the doctor’s kindness, then slowly laid Rin on the bed.
To avoid waking her, she changed positions several times with great care.
And when she covered Rin with a thin blanket, the unnie felt belatedly.
“She’s so light.”
She had thought it would be light because the ribs were visible, but maybe even lighter than when she was an elementary school student?
No matter how big the boy had been, now she was an adult.
Maybe because she kept vomiting while eating?
The unnie stroked the cheek of the deeply sleeping Rin, lost in thought.
“Yeah.”
It must have been because of the parents’ divorce.
The unnie recalled Rin’s parents.
They had really been good people.
The uncle had readily extended a helping hand, and the aunt had gently embraced.
Memories with those two were only good ones.
But couldn’t one love just because they were good people?
“Yeah.”
Perhaps because of that irrationality, the unnie suddenly felt like smoking.
If the two had been bad people and made the good child like this, she could have vented her anger.
Why did they make the child suffer like this, saying they loved each other and had her?
She would have gotten angry without thinking how it had come to be.
But the two had been good people.
The older brother of this child had been a good person too.
“Hoo.”
Overwhelmed by rising frustration, the unnie rose from her seat and asked the nurse if she could borrow a post-it.
She wrote the phone number and destination without startling Rin if she woke.
Then she walked unsteadily to the convenience store.
The lighter’s price had risen to 700 won.
“Should quit this too.”
Money was going out a lot, and it wasn’t even very good.
While muttering such a soliloquy, the unnie lit the cigarette as if she had no intention of stopping.
“Puho.”
Exhaling, gray smoke dispersed.
Maybe if she pondered why Rin had become like this, it wouldn’t be that color?
Rin herself struggling for ambiguous reasons, unable to hate anyone…
Was it not that she was suffering for such ambiguous reasons?
In that thought, the unnie slowly smoked the cigarette, lost in a daze.
And every time she exhaled smoke, her expression hardened.
Because she wanted to care for Rin comfortably, she wanted to make the uncle and aunt bad people.
“Ahaha…”
It was a selfish act that didn’t think about Rin.
What help did making childhood unhappy bring?
It would only make it more unhappy and hard now—what help was that to Rin?
“Haaaa…”
The unnie looked at the cigarette that was still half smoked, the suffocation only increasing.
Half remained, but she no longer wanted to smoke.
If she stayed here alone, it seemed she might do something bad to Rin just to feel better.
So the unnie stubbed the cigarette and went back to Rin.
To the side of Rin who could still remain a good person.